What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Yet again, I have had a week when what I was meant to be doing (on paper) was not what I ended up doing, not that those things were not valid in their own way;) I did get 2 customer quilts done before Nella pointed out that she would like to spend some time with me in the last week of her Easter hols. The custom quilt had to have a few thread tails sewn in and the red flying-geese one was a bit of a challenge because the customer wanted the echo quilting to look exactly as it did ...

No need to be alarmed – the title does not refer to a sad music album that I have written! It has been a week when I seem to have lost and broken more things than usual. I hunted high and low for some Swiss Army knives, blaming everyone else in the house for hoarding them then eventually found them at the back of a drawer where I had put them. When I was unspooling some thread off a Bernina bobbin it jumped out of my hand and disappeared under a really awkward cupboard. I looked everywhere for a quilt that ...

About that shelving - it's still in the garage. At the warehouse, we attempted to release the shelves with a mallet, but the little things that hold the shelves in place are NOT the little black plastic ones I've got on my other shelving. These are sort of rubberized WHITE ones. One of the guys told me in his experience that once these heavy-duty shelves are together, they are NOT coming off. I might try the wood and hammer method, but getting two guys to move it might be faster. I can't deal with it right now, so ...

OH --- someone mentioned that it was funny I went to the bank to deposit that $20 bill! Well, I was pretty sure it wouldn't go through the ATM, and I asked the teller, and he said NO. I thought this polymer bill was introduced years ago. I was a bit surprised that it was in September of 2015. Seriously? I thought it was older than that. AHA --- a bit more research and it was, in fact, introduced in November 2012. A commemorative note in honor of Queen Elizabeth was introduced in September 2015. 

I could have spent that $20 ...

I survived another day! Actually, it wasn't too bad once I got all the equipment set up for the second Zoom call. When the Zoom session is about software, the set-up is easy because everything is on the computer. But when it comes to showing the sewing machines, I need to do a bit more work. This is what it looked like last night behind the scenes. 

Behind the scenes on a Zoom call

I was too far away from my computer for my liking, so I need to rearrange that a bit. It gets tight with tripods and ...

My storage woes are far from being over. Every place I look - Google Drive, One Drive, my laptop -- everything is red-lining! The biggest issue is I need help understanding what is going on. I have files that are sitting on my phone that are also sitting on Google Drive. Some of them do not download when I download from my phone, but I see that I can do that manually on the computer. I best try downloading today and then manually moving what doesn't come automatically. 

And despite deleting many emails, the storage space has not budged. Why is ...

Today, there are two presentations, and both are as ready as they will be! There is so much to share with the groups, and I can only hope the message gets across. I get some questions and know that some are getting it, and well, I need to review for a few! The biggest issue with EVERYONE in any class is STABILIZER!!!! It's not that hard!!!! 

But all is good. Then I have nothing on the agenda until Monday morning, but I have eleven Zooms next week, one in-person event, Monday sewing, and a meeting. And that's the ...

What a wild day!!!! The temperature had dropped, but it was totally bearable with the sun! Those who were able to come to the full-day INPERSON session for the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 3 went home with their heads spinning from the amount of information I spewed at them! The intent was to give them a broad overview of the capabilities, but we need MORE than one day!! 

I was fired up and had fun!!! Thanks to Brampton Sew n Serge for hosting the event. I wonder if there are enough people with EPIC 3 around to host a Zoom ...

I am not sure I can do justice to my day. It felt like I was in an escape room and had a time limit to figure the puzzle out!

Let's say there were a few surprises along the way. I have done countless live Zoom presentations, and I have used two cameras and my laptop camera. No problem. However, we use a different platform for live streaming to Facebook, and the camera from the laptop will not work. Yikes! 

My initial thought was, "No problem," I have a video conferencing camera and my document camera, and I'll ...

As a person who owns several cameras, these days I take very few photos which does not adequately document my week. I had a huge customer quilt that took 2 days and a DIY quilter who spent 2 days here custom quilting. 

I considered starting on my Tula Pink butterfly quilt kit but that would require my full attention so I decided to dip in and out of the Art & Stitch manual. I think I am absorbing it more easily and it was pointed out to me that I don’t actually need to know it off by heart – I ...

While I accomplished a lot yesterday, I have nothing to show for it! I was in the car most of the afternoon and on a call in the morning! However, I managed to cross several things off my list! Yeah! I hate those kind of days, but every once in a while, they need to be done. 

I have to say that I LOVE the navigation system in the car. Actually, LOVE is not strong enough. It is so easy to use compared to the other vehicle! Well, there is NO comparison. 

I have Android Car Play, which I love ...

I spent a lot of my week testing out the Tech that I needed to use to do my Zoom lecture and demo for the Scottish branch of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles. I was using the MacBook Air that I got from Music Magpie and a usbc hub since the MacAir hardly has any ports where you can plug in gadgets. It turns out that there is more than one version of a basic usb port! I wanted to use 2 Camlinks in order to livestream images from my 2 GoPro cameras but they needed a faster ...

A lot happened yesterday, so it was a very productive day. I decided to putter around with the files on the computer, and there's one thing I do not understand. There's much I need help understanding, but this one is weird. 

I have a folder where I put RANDOM items that didn't have a home. I've been going through that folder, which has MANY items, and I think almost everything I looked at was deleted. I'm not even close to going through that folder. That tells me something! And I've found many DUPLICATES of ...

It was a bit of a silly day for me. I had a Zoom meeting on mySewnet Embroidery Software in the morning, and we were talking about file structures and how to PROPERLY save files within file structures. That led me to write a small article (still writing) on ideas, and I wanted to provide a sample. How could I do that when my file structure is a mess? 

That's not exactly true- my file structure is pretty decent, but I have become super diligent only in the last couple of years. Before that, it was a bit of ...

I am jumping over the moon right now! Can you see me? I have had a slight issue with a software program (not Outlook - believe it or not!) that has been bugging me. What is wrong? Or better yet -- what AM I DOING WRONG? 

We discussed the issue at Monday sewing, and I've learned there's a workaround or at least a different way. But this function HAS to work. Then I left it as I had to get stuff prepped for an embroidery software class. This morning, both things got niggling in my head as I loaded a ...

You know I've had significant issues with my Outlook (for email). Not only had I lost my signature file, but I had questions about some other features, and every time I looked up the answers in support, the tab/buttons never seemed to be in my version of Outlook. 

Well, thanks to my friends, I got the signature file back. Good grief -- the MOST important thing about this was where to find the command. Someone here who works with Outlook knew immediately where that command was. I think it's a bizarre place, but no worries -- the signature file ...

While my kids were still at school, Life was pretty busy, getting them to where they needed to be, running a business and entering quilt competitions but at least there was a schedule. These days, I don’t have many time commitments so I can please myself how much work I do. The trouble is that I make myself try to get too much done, all at once, so I hardly ever allow myself any down-time. I felt so harassed that I dug out a planner that I used to have in 2019 up until Life came to a grinding ...

I was 56 on Monday which means it is almost 16 years since I started blogging! I have been thinking… do I have a good work / life balance? Am I creating enough? Am I having fun? Does any of it even matter?! I certainly don’t seem to travel as much, mostly due to Nessie, costs and probably the state of the world. I am trying to be more focussed as I am easily distracted and that can be overwhelming.  

I “allowed” myself some time off for my birthday and had a lovely lunch out with a friend but I ...

WAIT -- there's a Virtual Retreat tonight and tomorrow, and I kept forgetting to put it in the blog this past week. DUH!!!! So much for the warning. I'll be working away, so if no one shows up, I'm OK with that. The link will be at the end of the post. 

 The decluttering stopped DEAD! Was that because DH was home? Was that because I had a deadline to meet and struggled with passive writing versus active writing? Or was it just time to take a break? I think it was a bit of everything. HOWEVER, I ...

You WILL not believe the email that I got yesterday! I couldn't help but laugh. Just when I thought I was on top of things. 

My Google One storage is almost full!

So here's the thing --- I have Microsoft Office on my computer. And they are desperately trying to get me to move to their web landing page -- Edge or something like that. But I'm a Google person, and so I like the Google landing page. And I have STORAGE with Google, and that's the one that is now showing 91% full!

Oh - I see that ...